36 years ago today---August 3, 1970

[Bull Butter]

Hurricane Celia makes a visit to the Coastal Bend

Those of us in South Texas old enough to remember will never forget August 3, 1970, the day a lady named Celia made a visit to Corpus Christi and South Texas.

She started out near Cuba as a tropical depression and quickly intensified into a minimal hurricane and fluctuated between 75-90 mph over her course. As she motored toward the Texas coast, she seemed to be eyeing the Port Lavaca-Port O'Connor area as her likely place of landfall. During the early morning of Aug. 3, 2 things happened- Her eye shrunk from 40 miles wide to only 10, going from a moderate hurricane to a killer. And she turned due west- headed straight for Corpus Christi.

For me, a boy of 6, I thought the storm was just a minor disruption of our family's vacation to Rockport. When my Grandmother's house started rocking back & forth and we didnt know if the roof was going to blow off or not, all of a sudden it wasn't so fun. Also not fun was Rockport being without power, water, phone service for the next 4 days we were there. When we went home, I remember the National Guard stopping traffic at the entrance to the Harbor Bridge. When we got home, we found out that Agua Dulce's power came back right after the storm (nice decision to stay in Rockport,dad!:mad: ) Not much to do because all 3 Corpus Christi television stations had been knocked off the air and remained off for the next 2-3 weeks. The first one to come back on was KIII-Channel 3 and all they could do was show old movies because they were unable to recieve the ABC network signal.

Any "old timers" out there with any Celia stories?

[Maroon87]

My earliest tangible memory is of Celia. I was nearly 3 at the time. I remember all of us being in the living room and the wind howling outside and lots of rain. I also remember the oak tree falling and wiping out our patio. My dad said I was crying not because I was scared but because I couldn't go outside and play football. Kinda fitting huh?:cool:

[IHS Fan]

we lived in an older neighborhood in CC. all we did was sit around and watch it storm just like we had done before. we got lucky because our street had no damage.

[Phil C]

I lived in Kingsville at the time and we got some wind and some street flooding. I remember we didn't have tv for about a month. The only radio in the whole area was the one in Kingsville owned by Andy Cook (I believe that was his name please help correct me) and he broadcast himself for almost 24 hours a day during those first critical days.

[luvhoops34]

When I saw the name of this thread, it made my blood run cold. I was 13 yrs old at the time and lived on the Navy base with my family. We had minimal warning at best of the impending storm. None of the housing was even evacuated until that morning, and the weather was already turning nasty. My dad, of course, had to go to the admin building bc he was on disaster control. They put all of us dependents in the new barracks. I remember going outside briefly when the eye passed over, but other than that we stayed in our rooms and looked out the small window at the destruction unfolding. It was extremely traumatic and to this day even a small thunderstorm strikes fear in my heart. Our house had it's roof ripped off and my dad stayed there after the storm to protect our belongings. Thankgoodness the Navy put us up in an air conditioned barrack after the storm. We eventually found a rent house over off of Staples and I started school at the old Sundeen jr. high. After the first six weeks, the Navy had moved trailers on the base for temporary housing and I was back at Flour Bluff jr high. To this day if you mention the word "hurricane" my blood pressure goes up. I never, ever want to go through that experience again.

[luvhoops34]

Originally posted by Bull Butter

Any "old timers" out there with any Celia stories? [/B]

Who you callin' "old timer"?? :D

[CalallenWildcat]

The roof blew off of the house next door to my grandmother's.

[Old Green]

I was a junior inn high school when Celia hit. I remember the high winds, rain , and flooding afterwards. i tink we got like 25 inches of rain.

[maroonpirate04]

Celia hit days before i was born on the 8th:eek: